Security system at Biden home reportedly plagued by unreliability, false alarms

Jan. 18, 2015: A security official stands at the end of the driveway leading to Vice President Joe Biden's home in Greenville, Del. Multiple gunshots were fired from a vehicle near Biden's Delaware home Saturday night, the U.S. Secret Service said Sunday. (AP Photo/The News Journal, Kyle Grantham)

Authorities investigating a shooting incident near the Delaware home of Vice President Joe Biden over the weekend say they have no leads or suspects because the property's surveillance cameras don't overlook the road where the shooting took place, according to a published report.

The Washington Post reported late Tuesday that the cameras are aimed at areas are adjacent to the home, but don't cover the area where Secret Service agents and neighbors heard a car speed away after four to six shots were fired Saturday night. Biden and his wife were not home at the time.

The Post also reports that the Biden home's security system has a long track record of unreliability, including several false alarms. At one point, according to the paper, the Secret Service turned the system off for several months last year.

In the wake of Saturday's incident, the Post reports that the Secret Service is proposing adding new cameras that would overlook more far-reaching areas of the property, including the main road. Secret Service spokesman Edwin Donovan did not elaborate on the Vice President's security arrangements, but told the Post, "On the night of the incident in Delaware, the appropriate security measures were in place and fully functioning."

The Secret Service has come under scrutiny in recent weeks for a series of security breaches at the White House, most notably a botched response to a 2011 shooting during which a bullet hit the Executive Mansion while President Obama and his wife were away.

Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, the chair of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, told the Post Tuesday that he had sent a letter to Secret Service Acting Director Joe Clancy asking to view the footage from the security cameras.

"It took so long to get details of the 2011 shooting,” Chaffetz told the paper. "Let's learn from that and learn immediately what happened here."